Posts [ 13 ]

Topic: RP conventions

Time for an EVE-related thread.First, to sum up all we've agreed upon and/or found backstory entries for earlier, if someone decides to join us:1. Conversations and IC chat channels are considered voice communication unless stated otherwise (Generally, the bigger the distance, the more likely it is to be text). EVEmail seems to be text.2. Ships, albeit heavily modified for pod control, do have crews, and these crews are not exactly small. 3. Blueprints are not only actual blueprints, but also the license for production of an item, hence the limited runs on copies.4. Uniting ships in a "gang" is referred to as linking up their computers.Not a big list yet, really. Well, I'm sure there are lots of things I'm just too used to to mention them.

So, what I'd like to decide now, is how we roleplay leadership bonuses and fleets. Apparently, you can only receive these bonuses if you're in a fleet (Or, to be more specific, a squad if you don't have higher leadership skills), and if the squad commander has enough skill to grant them to everyone.It would seem that these skills simply reflect the character's expertise in a given field, but it seems strange when being commanded by a captain who can barely operate a mining laser and/or a refining facility suddenly starts granting +10% to the team's mining yield, or a commander who never saw big combat granting +10% armour hitpoints.Also, the commander gets the bonus as well.

Converting a gang to a fleet, on the other hand, seems pretty simple: the link formed by ganging up is enchanced and the ships' computers are able to interact even more closely.Following this, the skills may mean that the character got his hands on some sort of optimization program, but this is easily dismissed by the fact that it doesn't stay after the fleet is dissolved.

Suggestions?

RP in MMOG's looks like this when trying to base it on in-game activities:"Let's go <activity>!""Yay, <activity>!""<motivation>!"

Re: RP conventions

Hmmm... just my thought but maybe the bonuses can be accounted for by optimisation of computer systems. As the systems are now linked, maybe the shields can be merged in some way to provide optimised coverage for the whole fleet, producing more protection for the armour. And maybe the increased yield could be accounted for by using spare power diverted from other members of the fleet, improving the efficiency of the lasers?

Just a couple of ideas.

And while I'm here, it's been so long since I started Eve that I can't remember details on the pods. I had a look but was unable to quickly find anything on the forums to answer what I was interested in. In the pods, are we just strapped and plugged in to our control systems, or are we in one of these sort of sci fi pods that have you completely submersed in some sort of goo? For example, I've automatically RPed sounds of me kicking panels and such, but this would only be the case if I have freedom of some movement in my pod.

Re: RP conventions

There are already skills and equipment to transfer ship shields and such, but you could say that the linking up makes each individual ship more efficient by it getting optimized data on where it fits in the whole and such, from the lead ship/commander, freeing more resources to be used on critical systems such as shields and so on. .Well..

And there's a story and a picture somewhere in the Stories section of the EVE site where you see a pilot completely submerged in goo. I'd say that's when you are going into your escape pod, but usually you are walking the ship, interacting with your crew and so on. There are also stories to support this. So that maybe not just you but other crew could survive in their own small podships once the ship explodes.

Re: RP conventions

Whilst no longer playing EVE myself I was a player for over a year and have several issues of E-ON magazine. One of the stories published in the magazine- and therefore presumably canon- detailed the pod and a pilot emerging into the rest of the ship. Others on the site give hints about other aspects of Pod Piloting. Here are the facts about the Pod which can be found in canon, and if there's a serious problem I'll try to dig up where I found a specific piece of info:-

- The Pilot IS floating naked in a tank of goo, body comatose, whilst plugged into the ship's computer.

- The tank provides full life support and maintenece of the body- a Pilot can remain in the tank for a theoretically unlimited length of time with no physical side effects.

- The Pilot can unplug from the pod, emerge into the ship (after washing and dressing), and interact with the crew. The ship presumably loses all the advantages of being pod-piloted, and quite probably is LESS effective than a non-pod ship in this state.

- The pod is behind securely locked blast doors that can only be opened from INSIDE the pod when the Pilot is plugged in. This is a security measure to prevent a mutinous crew from killing a comatose Captain in the pod.

- The Pilot inside the pod "feels" the ship as if it was his/her own body, and so is able to control it more effectively.

- Frigates have no crew, and just require a pod pilot. Larger ships are more complicated, and fully automating them would require a computer so complex it would have a chance to go rogue as the Rogue Drones did- hence the need for a crew. Pod piloted ships do, however, have significantly smaller crews than standard ones.

- There are obviously no bangs, zooms, or other sounds in space- likewise, weapon fire is probably not visible to the human eye. The Pilot will, however, react faster to such stimuli than to a message reading "Incoming missile" or "Laser fire from Ship A", so the computer converts such date into a full-sensory display.

Re: RP conventions

The Pilots are capable of staying in the Pods indefinitely, but could just as easily do just as Wheri says and stay outside, running for the Pod whenever battle stations is sounded. Personally, and from some of the articles I've read, I get the impression that both are going to happen based on the Pilot's temperament.

Picture the sort of Pilot who would stay constantly hooked into the Pod and never emerge. Said Pilot feels more like a ship than a human being, interacts purely over the comms channels, and treats the crew as a disposable part of the ship's infrastructure, only existing to them as a disembodied voice giving orders. Then picture a Pilot who lives amongst his crew and is an inspirational leader, who mourns whenever they die and feels a shiver of unease every time he hooks into the pod.

Then picture all the possibilities between these two extremes.

An EVE character can function perfectly well never leaving the pod for the entire career as a pilot. The extent to which a character DOES leave the pod will probably be one of the defining characteristics of a Pod Pilot.

Finally, a thought I've had about the pods was that they create a full-sensory VR experience for the Pilot to fly by- feeling damage to the ship as pain, hearing missiles launch and explode, and so on. In theory, there is no reason why this couldn't simulate another environment. Perhaps the pilots will create a "Chat Room" where they can manifest as humanoid (or whatever) avatars to interact with each other during long periods spent in the pods (EG Asteroid Mining).

Also, perhaps an admin should start a thread about Pods and transfer the applicable stuff over. Whilst potentially useful, it IS getting off the stated topic a little.

Re: RP conventions

>>Picture the sort of Pilot who would stay constantly hooked into the Pod and never emerge. Said Pilot feels more like a ship than a human being, interacts purely over the comms channels, and treats the crew as a disposable part of the ship's infrastructure, only existing to them as a disembodied voice giving orders.In short, Va'ra.

RP in MMOG's looks like this when trying to base it on in-game activities:"Let's go <activity>!""Yay, <activity>!""<motivation>!"